Former President Bill Clinton, in his first comments on President Bush’s re-election, yesterday urged Democrats not to “whine” about the outcome, but to find a “clear national message.”

Clinton also said that Democrat John Kerry was hurt by the polarizing issue of gay marriage, which was legalized by Massachusetts’ top court and put on the ballot in 11 states, and the surfacing of a tape from Osama bin Laden in the final days of the race.

Reminded of terrorism by the bin Laden tape, voters decided they didn’t want to “change horses” during a time of heightened concern over national security, Clinton said in a speech to the Urban Land Institute at the New York Hilton.

Clinton said Hispanic voters tilted to Bush because of terrorism fears, as did suburban “soccer moms,” who Clinton said turned into “the security moms of 2004.”

He also said that while Democrats registered more new voters than Republicans, the Bush campaign did a better job of getting voters to the polls who were already registered but had not previously voted.

Despite the GOP victory, the former president – whose wife Hillary is already being mentioned as the top contender for the White House in 2008 – said Democrats “shouldn’t be all that discouraged” by Kerry’s defeat.

Clinton said it would be “a mistake for our party to sit around and . . . whine about this and that or the other thing.”

Clinton attributed Kerry’s loss to the Democrats’ failure to combat how they were portrayed by Republicans to small-town America.

“If we let people believe that our party doesn’t believe in faith and family, doesn’t believe in work and freedom, that’s our fault,” he said.

Democrats “need a clear national message, and they have to do this without one big advantage the Republicans have, which is they won’t have a theological message that basically paints the other guy as evil,” he said.

Clinton said the country was more divided than it was in 1968 and called for an end to the “culture war.”

In his hourlong speech Clinton, who had open-heart surgery in September, gave Bush and the Republicans full credit for the election victory.

“The Republicans had a clear message, a good messenger, great organization and great strategy,” he said.

Clinton said Bush should use his second term to move toward less dependence on foreign oil.

“This election presents a great opportunity for President Bush and a great opportunity for Democrats, and the two are not necessarily in conflict,” he said.

The biggest opportunity he noted was the prospect of an Israeli-Palestinian peace amid the impending demise of Yasser Arafat.

Peace in the region would “take enormous steam” out of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism worldwide, Clinton said. “They would have to think of a new excuse to murder people.”

WHY KERRY LOST

* Gay marriage issue favored Republicans

* GOP got inactive registered voters to the polls

* Democrats were portrayed as the party that didn’t care about family, freedon, faith and work